Next: 2017 Menus

Next 2017 Menus!

Chef Grant Achatz, chef Jenner Tomaska, Nick Kokonas and the entire team at Next are pleased to announce the 2017 Menus for Next Restaurant.
Season Ticket pricing is $10 to $20 less per menu overall and go on sale December 7th at 10 AM CST at Next.TockTix.Com.
Here's a brief intro video
https://vimeo.com/193477737


The menus are:

Next: Ancient Rome
January 25 to April 30
Apicius or On the Subject of Cooking is a cookbook compiled in the 4th or 5th century AD in Rome based on recipes from the 1st Century. Organized into 10 books with amazing titles like "The Gardener", "The Gourmet", "Pulse" and "The Quadruped" our team at Next will take inspiration from this ancient text, focusing on a forgotten historical cuisine with our modern lens. Decadent, delicious, and surprising, amphoras of wine will be plentiful and togas merely optional.

Pricing: $115 to $145 / varying by day of week and time.

Next: Hollywood
May 10 to August 13:
1950's glamour, 1980's back to the future, 2010's techno thrillers -- Next takes inspiration from great Hollywood movies to take you on a journey off the silver screen and onto your table. From Goodfellas to Big Night and Star Wars to Star Trek our Hollywood menu will keep you guessing about the next scene. Drama, comedy, sci-fi are all coming to Next in this genre bending blockbuster.

Pricing $115 to $145 / varying by day of week and time.

Next: World's 50 Best
August 23 to December 31:
The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards list is influential, coveted and controversial. But there is no denying it's impact on the international fine-dining scene. Every year a community of great chefs convenes to celebrate together and see how the voting shakes out. On the 15th anniversary of the list we've invited awarded chefs to collaborate with our team at Next and contribute a unique dish to our Fall 2017 grand tasting menu. Confirmed chefs include:
Andoni Aduriz / Mugaritz / Spain
Ben Shewry / Attica / Australia
Virgilio Martinez-Feliz / Central / Peru
Albert Adria / Tickets / Spain
Gaggan Anand / Gaggan / Thailand
Dan Barber / Blue Hill / USA
Andre Chiang / Andre / Singapore
Brett Graham / The Ledbury / UK
Daniel Humm / Eleven Madison Park / USA
Tim Raue / Restaurant Tim Raue / Germany
Massimo Bottura / Osteria Francescana / Italy
Jorge Vallejo / Quintonil / Mexico
Yoshi Takazawa / Takazawa / Japan
Jonnie Boer / De Librije / Netherlands
Issac McHale / Clove Club / UK
Luke Dale-Roberts / Test Kitchen / South Africa
Ignacio Mattos / Estela / USA
Mitsuhara Tsumura / Maido / Peru
and more confirming every day!

Pricing: $245 to $285 / varying by day of week and time.

Wine and beverage pairings are available for all three menus.

I really want to try the Ancient Rome menu, now to convince my classics major wife to fork over the dough. I will be disappointed if the menu goes not include garum and dormice.

As always LTHer's were ahead of the curve. Check out this Apicius dinner from Jefe and Laikom back in 2014. I attended and it was a magical evening.

The real question is whether or not I can wear a toga to the Roman feast!

Having been to every Next menu since Sicily, I think these highlight - theoretically at least - what they are best at.

1. Highlighting a time and place from the past - Ancient Rome. My favorite, so far, along these lines, has been Sicily. That menu captured something very real and it is in my top 3 to this day. Many people cite Paris as the best along these lines... and say it is the best Next menu ever. Ancient Rome sounds delicious and historic.

2. Playful / Nostalgic / Emotive - Hollywood. Now with this one I always thought Trio was the best though many people cite Childhood as the prototype for that train of thought. This is when Next is the most "Alinea" like, I think. We'll see how Hollywood goes!

3. A "pull all the stops out" blow out experience - Top 50. This could be really interesting. I've only had a handful of the chefs foods on that list though this could really capture where fine dining is "at" in 2016/17.

Next is such a different beast and it will be interesting to revisit some of their best "principles" or "guidelines" for theorizing a menu now that they have been open a good number of years. I know what menus I have enjoyed the most and which ones did not work as much for me and these, I feel, are some of the guidelines that originally defined them.

Royal Lichter wrote:Next 2017 Menus!



Next: Ancient Rome
Apicius or On the Subject of Cooking is a cookbook compiled in the 4th or 5th century AD in Rome based on recipes from the 1st Century.

AD? Meh, so nouveau. Give me some BC stuff before all those modernists starting messing with it!

Any feedback on the Ancient Rome menu? Haven't heard anything.

bnl wrote:Any feedback on the Ancient Rome menu? Haven't heard anything.

I went a few weeks ago and had a great meal. It was my second time at Next with my previous visit being Childhood. I don't want to come across as overly negative at all - the food was genuinely great and some of the flavor combinations and textural contrasts were the type of mind-blowing deliciousness you'd expect from a kitchen in the Achatz restaurant family. But what was missing for me was anything in the ambience that added to the Roman theme. With the exception of the occasional whiff of garum, which our server volunteered was not house made, and the recipe book that's on tables to show where the inspiration comes from, there was nothing that screamed Ancient Rome to me. The metal tables, lack of tablecloths, and absence of music made it feel like another fantastic meal in a typically really loud West Loop restaurant. But again - food wise, I thought the menu was a winner. Highlights are pictured below. Full photo set is here. One food highlight not pictured here because the picture sucks was the black truffle wrapped in chicken skin, which will likely end up as one of my favorite bites all year.

bnl wrote:Any feedback on the Ancient Rome menu? Haven't heard anything.

Would def recommend checking it out. It was our first time at Next but we had Alinea the night before (splurging weekend) and I'd say the playfulness and engagement of the menu at Next was definitely more exciting. I do agree that the ambiance didn't scream "Ancient Rome" but the food was incredible.

The black truffle wrapped in chicken skin was agreeably one of the better bites, but every course was whimsical and being able to try and track chef Tomaska's vision/creativity was part of the experience.

We'll definitely be back for Hollywood

It seems that the Hollywood theme has some open tables early right now. I would like to go with a four top but have concerns about the wine pairings. It reads - For wine pairings, all guests must enjoy the same service option. We have one non drinker in our group. Can anyone with recent experience tell me how this might work? Or, can you order wine by the bottle?

Cinnamon Girl wrote:It seems that the Hollywood theme has some open tables early right now. I would like to go with a four top but have concerns about the wine pairings. It reads - For wine pairings, all guests must enjoy the same service option. We have one non drinker in our group. Can anyone with recent experience tell me how this might work? Or, can you order wine by the bottle?

I think they are saying you can not mix different levels of alcoholic wine parings. I have dined with others who have gotten the non alcoholic pairings when I got the standard wine paring.

Has anyone tried the 50 best menu? I'm going Friday night. I read some Yelp reviews (the only reviews I could find other than Vettel), and they were much less than stellar.